The debate between the merits of hardware and software in the storage industry is always on-going. Here’s Seven10’s two cents.

Intelligent software will dramatically redefine the current way of doing business in IT over the next 2-3 years. The transition will happen quickly once industry pros realize that the accelerating rate of hardware purchases isn’t sustainable.

Today’s data center is built from stacks and stacks of hardware, since disk proliferation leads to massive investments in back-up infrastructure. This “pack-rat” mentality of buying and holding onto hardware has been 15 years in the making. Big Iron is doing nothing to curb the current thinking of “throw more disk at it.”

How long has it been since Big Iron has promised to be more software-centric, yet most of their software management platforms remain the “brown-headed step child” (I am a red head) of the company. At the end of the day, the reality is this: Too much hardware has caused billions of dollars in mismanaged data.

In the next decade, the Global IT department needs to think radically in their approach to data management and focus on software solutions that will help reduce mismanagement, minimize storage obsolescence, and increase accessibility.

This approach will undoubtedly reduce the amount of hardware purchased, impacting revenue growth and forcing Big Iron into build vs. buy decisions that will eventually change the landscape of the storage industry forever.

- Bobby Moulton, President of Seven10